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SALT LAKE CITY — When Max Schachter and his family moved to Parkland, Florida, it was rated as the safest city in the state. When he sent his son Alex to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018, he assumed Alex would come home safe like he had every other day.
Tragically, that was not the case.
Alex Schachter died in a shooting that took the lives of 16 other students and staff in the school.
"After that day, I changed my life and I dedicated my mission to making sure that this never happens again," Schacter said.
Schacter on Tuesday joined a contingent of Utah lawmakers, state officials and other parents pushing for school safety reform who spoke in support of HB84, school safety legislation sponsored by Rep. Ryan Wilcox, R-Ogden, that would establish a statewide system for school safety incidents.
Wilcox also serves as the chairman of the School Security Taskforce, established by the Utah Legislature following a school shooting hoax that swept across the Beehive State in March 2023.
Included in the umbrella bill would be the creation of a school guardian program requiring every public, charter and private school to have at least one armed security personnel at the school whenever class is in session. This could include a uniformed school resource officer, a school safety and security officer provided by local law enforcement and hired by the school district, or a contracted security guard who would be allowed to conceal or open carry a firearm on school grounds.
It could also include school employees.
The guardians would train twice a year inside of the school, and the county sheriff would oversee their duties, Wilcox said in February. Guardians would undergo mental health evaluations and de-escalation training. Their training would also include firearms proficiency.
The bill would also establish minimum safety procedures for schools, such as panic buttons and better communication systems, and require reporting by state employees and others if they become aware of threats to schools.
Additionally, it establishes the duties of the state security chief and requires them to develop training for school resource officers. It also calls for some reporting from the SafeUT Crisis Line to the state's intelligence databases and requires certain school safety data to be included in the state's annual school disciplinary report.
Jess Anderson, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, said during the 2023-24 school year alone, the department has been made aware of "well over" 121 violent school threats, and schools throughout the state have had over 60 lockdowns. He added the department has seen "three significant cases" in which it has intervened to stop a school shooting this year.
"I wish this wasn't why we were talking. I can't believe this is my assignment at this point," Wilcox said, emotionally. "We have to get this one (school safety) right. We've gotten lucky so far. I don't know how long we can. Please help us to prioritize this, please talk to your schools, please talk to your administrators (and) please encourage them to support the legislation because there isn't anything else that matters if we get this one wrong."
Last year, the Utah Legislature passed HB61 which, among other measures, created the position of state security chief — who is responsible for state-level oversight of school safety and security issues. In January, the Utah Department of Public Safety announced that Matt Pennington would fill the newly created position.
"The partnership with county sheriffs, local law enforcement, education (and) even mental health is what's going to get this done but it doesn't stop there," Pennington said. "We're training our children, we're trying to keep our children safe and that even goes home to all of you as parents and siblings. The conversation has to continue from home, through school, to later in life in order to get this all done."
Like Schachter, Lori Alhadeff lost her daughter, Alyssa Alhadeff, in the Parkland shooting. Since then, Alhadeff has founded the Make Our Schools Safe nonprofit and champions school safety reform around the country.
Alyssa's Law — legislation to improve the response time of law enforcement during emergencies in public schools by mandating that all public elementary and secondary school buildings be equipped with silent panic alarms that directly notify law enforcement — has passed in Florida, New York, New Jersey, Tennessee and Texas.
Alhadeff said she wants to see Utah join that list next.
"We want to see Alyssa's Law passed here in Utah as a standard level of school safety detection in every school so that when there's a medical emergency or active shooter situation, a teacher can push a button and it's directly linked to law enforcement so help can get on scene as quickly as possible to take down a threat or triage any of the victims," Alhadeff said.
